1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-forming apparatus and an image-forming method having a warning function to inform a user that output sheets printed corresponding to a plurality of demanded printing-jobs are mixed among the printed output sheets discharged on a discharge tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer connected to a plurality of personal computers (PCs) via a network accepts printing-jobs demanded from the plurality of PCs, and prints these jobs in order of arrival so as to discharge the printed output sheets on the discharge tray. Therefore, on the discharge tray of the printer, output sheets printed corresponding to a plurality of printing-job demands may be discharged in piles, so that there is a risk that a user of each PC, who comes to bring printed sheets (output sheets), may bring back the printed sheets without knowing the mixture of another user's output sheet.
On the other hand, in a facsimile (FAX), output sheets addressed to various receivers from various senders may also be mixed on the discharge tray in the same way as that of the printer.
In order to solve such a problem, there have been patent documents such as Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-317123, in which a facsimile has a sorter function to have a plurality of sorter bins so as to prevent a user from bringing back an output sheet addressed for another user in mistake by displaying or informing with voice the sender and receiver information when the user is to bring received sheets out of the bin.
However, if there is only one discharge tray for discharging output sheets thereon, a problem cannot be avoided, in which output sheets printed corresponding to a plurality of printing demands are mixed on the discharge tray. Therefore, there is an unsolved problem that a user may bring output sheets back without knowing that an output sheet for another user is mixed therewith. In particular, for a visually impaired user, an output sheet cannot be visually confirmed, so that it has been very difficult to determine the possibility that output sheets printed corresponding to a plurality of printing demands are mixed on the discharge tray.
On the other hand, according to the above-mentioned patent document, a facsimile is required to have a plurality of sorter bins and a sensor for each sorter for detecting that a received document is brought out, so that there has been a disadvantage of high cost.